TREES, PEOPLE, AND MAGNETISM

The first chronometer we will consider is the bristlecone pine. Bristlecone pines are the oldest living things on earth, the oldest one being about 4500 years old. Since such plants are able to live almost indefinitely -- they have no real ceiling on their life span -- we are lead to ask, why are the oldest bristlecone pines no older than 4500 years? We would expect the oldest specimens to be more ancient than this, if the earth were really very old.

Of course, from a Biblical point of view, the 4500-year age limit tells us when the Flood came to a close. It is not a coincidence that Biblical chronology also places the Flood at 4500 years ago or so. Many other terrestrial processes also yield a similar date for the Flood, but of course, to the evolutionary philosophy, the great global Flood taught in Scripture was a non-event. This means that, as far as evolutionary philosophy is concerned, the bristlecone pine age-limit of 4500 years still stands as an indicator that the earth must be young -- only a few thousand years old, not billions of years.

Redwood trees provide a chronology similar to bristlecone pines. While the redwoods are the tallest living things on earth -- the tallest is a 368-foot-high specimen in Humbolt County, California -- the oldest one dates back only 4000 years or so. Again we ask, if the earth is really billions of years old, why are the oldest redwoods so young? As with the bristlecone pines, the oldest redwoods actually date the Flood, but to evolutionary philosophy the Flood is irrelevant.

Let's consider another chronometer, the chronometer of population growth. At a one-half percent annual growth rate for the world population, the world's present population could have come from two people in only 5000 years, which is roughly the length of Biblical time. Of course there is also a death rate which decreases the population, but on the other hand the world population growth rate is actually two percent! Clearly the global population could have come from a small group of people in only a few thousand years. Population statistics therefore provide another clue that humanity -- and by implication the earth, which according to the Biblical record was created in the same week as man -- is fairly young.

We now move to another chronometer that indicates a fairly young age for the earth. It is the decay of earth's magnetic field. The earth's magnetic field is getting weaker with time. It is dying away. In fact it has been estimated that if the earth were several thousand years older, the magnetic field would be gone altogether. That would be very unfortunate for life on earth, because we depend on the magnetic field to shield us from cancer-causing cosmic rays. On the other hand, were the earth more than 10,000 years old or so, the field would have been so strong in ancient times that it would have killed all living things. Apparently the field has not been decaying for more than 10,000 years or so, and this must be the maximum age of the earth according to this chronometer.

Sometimes it is claimed that the present decay of the earth's magnetic field is simply part of a cycle of decay and renewal. Evolutionary philosophy claims that the field of magnetism around the earth has not been decaying steadily, that instead during some eons of time the field goes through periods of strengthening, and then in other eons -- including the present -- the field goes through intervals of decay. But genuine evidence of such a long-term cycle of alternating decay and renewal is completely lacking. By contrast, one-way decay processes are consistent with the Biblical description of a world that is growing old like a garment (Isaiah 51:6).